Pickering, Ontario
Pickering is a city located in Southern Ontario, Canada, immediately east of Toronto in Durham Region.
Beginning in the 1770s, the area was settled by primarily British colonists. An increase in population occurred after the American Revolutionary War, when the Crown resettled Loyalists and encouraged new immigration. Many of the smaller rural communities have been preserved and function as provincially significant historic sites and museums. The city also includes the Pickering Casino Resort, a multi-billion-dollar casino complex.
History
Early period
The present-day Pickering was Aboriginal territory for thousands of years. The Wyandot, who spoke an Iroquoian language, were the historical people living here in the 15th century. Archeological remains of a large village have been found here, known as the Draper Site. Later, the Wyandot moved northwest to Georgian Bay, where they established their historic homeland. There they encountered French explorers in the early 17th century, followed by missionaries and fur traders.The first recorded history of this area was made in 1669, when the French Jesuit missionary François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon noted reaching what he called the Seneca village of Gandatsetiagon, on the shores of Frenchman's Bay. The Onondaga were among the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Onondaga generally occupied territory to the south and west of Lakes Ontario and Erie in present-day New York that extended into Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley, where they maintained hunting grounds.
Township of Pickering
The British took over Canada in 1763 following defeat of the French in the Seven Years' War, known in Colonial America as the French and Indian War. British colonial settlers were steadily migrating into the area from eastern areas of Canada. There is some controversy over the identity of the earliest European settler in the area. One of the candidates is Mike Duffin, who settled in what later became the Pickering Village, possibly in the 1770s. The other candidate is Benjamin Wilson of Vermont, who probably lived in Pickering for sometime, before moving to Whitby in 1794.In the 1780s, the present-day Pickering area was a part of the Nassau District of the Province of Quebec. In 1791, Augustus Jones undertook a survey of the area, establishing the baseline and some of the concessions. The same year, the District was transferred to the newly created province of Upper Canada. In 1792, the district was renamed Home District, and Pickering was established as a township.
The township was originally called "Edinburgh" but in 1792 was renamed after the town of Pickering in the English county of Yorkshire. Pickering Village, now part of Ajax, emerged as the major population and commercial centre of the Pickering Township in the early 19th century. The conversion of a local trail into the Kingston Road in 1799 contributed greatly to the increased settlement in the area. In 1807, Quakers led by Timothy Rogers settled in the area, and by 1809, the population of Pickering Township consisted of 180 people, most of whom lived along the Duffins Creek. In 1811, the Pickering Township became a separate municipality. Several sawmills, gristmills, taverns, and other businesses operated in the area. During the War of 1812, the maintenance of the Kingston Road improved because of the increased military traffic and further contributed to the development of the area.
In the 19th century, several other small communities developed in the Duffins Creek watershed, within the Pickering Township. These included Whitevale, Brougham, Green River, Claremont, Altona, Greenwood, and Balsam. A few communities also developed in the smaller Carruthers Creek watershed, including Audley, Kinsale, and Salem. In 1849, the village of Dunbarton was established along the Dunbarton Creek. The Grand Trunk Railway reached the Township in 1856.
Pickering was represented in the Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837. One of its leaders, Peter Matthews, had been one of the most prominent members of the community. In 1851, the Pickering Township was severed from the York County, and became a part of the newly established Ontario County.
In the later decades of the 19th century, a fall in the demand for wheat led to economic decline in the primarily-agricultural township. The township lost over 40% of its population in the second half of the 19th century, and the decline continued in the first half of the 20th century.
In the first half of the 20th century, two new communities emerged in the Pickering Township: the cottage community of Pickering Beach and the self-contained community around the federal government-owned Defence Industries Limited Pickering Works munitions plant. Both areas are now part of Ajax. After the World War II, urbanization began in the southern part of Pickering, and later spread to other parts of the Township.
City of Pickering
On 1 January 1974, the Ontario County was dissolved, and the area became part of the Regional Municipality of Durham. The southeastern portion of the Pickering Township, including the Pickering Village and Pickering High School, became part of the independent town of Ajax. The rest of the township became the Town of Pickering, which in 2000, became the City of Pickering.In the last quarter of the 20th century, much of the government-owned land in northern Pickering sat idle because of uncertainty over the proposed Pickering Airport. That included the land expropriated by the federal government for the airport and the adjacent land expropriated by the provincial government for the proposed Seaton community that would benefit from the airport.
The development of Seaton picked up pace in the 21st century, but as of 2022, only 1,549 of the 20,989 planned units had been built. The city also considered the development of a new community called Veraine, to be built in northeastern Pickering. The city also saw a rise in the number of high-rise condos.
Cityscape
Geography
The city covers an area of 231 square kilometres with an elevation of 89 metres.Toronto, Markham, and Rouge Park border Pickering on the west; Ajax and Whitby border Pickering on the east; Uxbridge is to the north; and Lake Ontario forms Pickering's southern boundary.
Communities
The southern part of the city is mainly suburban, with industrial areas restricted to the area around Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. Most of the suburban areas were built as subdivisions after World War II, starting in the area around Frenchman's Bay. Prior to the war, the few suburban areas in the township were the communities of Dunbarton, Fairport Beach, Liverpool Market, and Rouge Hill. Squires Beach, located by the lake shore in the southeast part of the city, is now a ghost town as the area was cleared from 1966 to make way for the construction of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. The only home standing in Squires Beach was built by Timothy Rogers in 1842 and relocated to Montgomery Park Road. Squires Beach Road is now cut off from the lake by a waste water treatment plant.The northern part of the municipality is mainly rural, primarily used for agricultural purposes. However, a number of residential developments are found in this area, and the locally controversial Seaton area also falls within this part of the city. The primary rural communities in Pickering are Claremont, Brougham, and Whitevale; a number of smaller communities exist throughout northern Pickering, such as Greenwood. John Diefenbaker, a Prime Minister of Canada, lived in Greenwood for a number of years.
The abandoned ghost town of Altona is located there. Cherrywood, another hamlet in Pickering, is one of the few areas that are protected within the Greenbelt.
The communities of Kinsale in the northeast and Green River on the York-Durham town line are other small communities in Pickering, with a population each of between 50 and 100 people. Most of these communities were founded in the 1700s and 1800s and have churches and historic estates that have been restored through government funding. Dixie is a small rural community situated in rural Pickering, with more contemporary buildings.
The film industry has been very active in communities such as Whitevale, since the 1980s, due to the quality of the historical buildings and untouched nature of the landscape. The television shows Hannibal ''Suits, and American Gods'' have filmed extensively in Whitevale and in other locations in Pickering.
Nautical Village is located at Frenchman's Bay and features entertainment, a playground, a boardwalk, restaurants, shops and an art gallery.
The city is divided into following neighbourhoods:
- South Urban Pickering
- * Rosebank
- * West Shore
- * Bay Ridges
- * Brock Industrial
- * Rougemount
- * Woodlands
- * Dunbarton
- * City Centre
- * Village East, the eastern part of the former Pickering Village municipality
- * Highbush
- * Amberlea
- * Brock Ridge
- * Liverpool
- * Rouge Park
- * Duffin Heights
- Seaton Urban Area
- * Lamoureaux
- * Brock-Taunton
- * Mount Pleasant
- * Wilson Meadows
- * Thompson's Corners
- * Innovation Corridor
- Rural Pickering
- * Claremont & Area
- * Greenwood, Kinsale & Estate Residential Clusters
- * Other Rural Area
Demographics
The city has estimated that by 2031, Pickering will be home to 131,608 residents.
In 2021, 16.5% of the population was under 15 years of age, and 16.6% was 65 years and over. The median age in Pickering was 40.8 years.
Immigrants made up 36.3% of the population in 2021. The top places of birth of the immigrant population were India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Philippines, Jamaica, the United Kingdom, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, China, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and the United States.
The median total income of households in 2020 for Pickering was $118,000.